We earn Rs 1,200 a month, say farmers

Thousands of farmers, farm labor have traveled from remote villages to hold a 'Mahapanchayat' to demand a farmers' income commission and a moratorium on land acquisition among others..

| TNN | Mar 20, 2013, 04.19 PM IST

NEW DELHI: The Parliament Street is teeming with protesters again. This time thousands of farmers, farm labor have traveled from remote villages to hold a 'Mahapanchayat' to demand a farmers' income commission and a moratorium on land acquisition among others. Farmers holding lathis as a mark of protest have been camping since Monday. Many of them have returned to their villages to come back with more people and supplies to campaign till the Prime Minister responds to their demands.

Farmers are joined by various people's movements at the protest including the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and the international peasant's movement, La Campesina.

Protesters have five broad demands. They demand that the government impose a moratorium on acquisition of agrarian land until the government releases a white paper on the acquisition and rehabilitation of project-affected people so far.

"We will not accept acquisition of land by private parties. For approval of public projects the consent of gram/ basti sabha is mandatory. The government should stop forceful land acquisition now," says member secretary, Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movement, Yudhvir Singh.

"The amended land acquisition bill in its new avatar is unacceptable to us. The Parliamentary Standing Committee's recommendations have been ignored by the government. The amended bill falls short of protecting rural livelihoods and basic productive resources needed for such livelihoods. When official surveys are showing that non-agricultural sectors have no potential for employment generation and growth, how can the government continue to displace millions from farming?", said a statement issued by the Mahapanchayat.

Another demand of the farmers is for a farmer's income guarantee act and a farmers' income commission.

"The minimum income that each farmer should be getting is Rs 4,500 per month to be able to sustain his family. But most marginal farmers are earning way lower than that," adds Singh. A group of over 100 farmers from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh say that many farmers earn about Rs 30 to Rs 40 per day.

"Please tell me how can we survive on Rs 40 a day which is just Rs 1200 a month? We have children and elders to feed. We are desperate now," says Kanti, a woman farm worker.

Another group of over 700 farmers from Gorakhpur said that the main problem for farmers was land acquisition. While farmers feel tempted to give up on their small patch of land for a petty price, they realise the mistake later, say some farmers. "The compensation is not adequate. And farmers do not have alternative jobs so their existence becomes very difficult," says Bindrawati, a farmer leader.

One of the significant demands of the protesters is a special session in the Parliament to discuss farmer suicides. Farmer leaders also rejected free trade in agriculture because they felt that it favours agri-businesses rather than Indian farmers.

"We will not allow other countries to dump agricultural produce in India. This drives down local prices and are driving farmers out of business. The government has not been able to convince us about how foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail will help the small framer," adds Yudhvir Singh.

The groups also demanded that the government promote agro-ecology instead of chemical based farming and genetically modified crops (GMOs).

Farmer leaders said that representatives from the PMO are likely to meet them for a discussion on the five demands on Wednesday evening.

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